Comment history

@piak - if we raise the debt limit, we would not have to print as many dollars (we would borrow the amount from other countries instead). If we do NOT raise the debt limit, then printing money (and the associated inflation) is a bigger option, BUT the world economy would not take that well... especially countries like China who hold a large store of US dollars.

As it stands, if China were to start dumping their dollars, we'd see the same inflationary effect as if we gunned up the printing presses at home.

IF we default and employee pay rates do not adjust upward for the devalued dollar, it would be pretty bad for the American worker (the $500/week today would buy only $250 worth of fuel/food tomorrow). Essentially, it would put the US on the fast track to becoming a third world country... which in the long run (e.g. after homeless camp sites are the norm)... could cause manufacturing to return to the US.. think sweatshop $5/day type work...

Think of a default as the Republican way of turning us into the next China like labor market.

If you want to be safe, liquidate your 'cash' assets and move it into something that will hold value. I personally think gold is super inflated and would look at something else... something that would be sell-able and NEEDED by people who do not have much money to spare... maybe move it into corn futures?

If interest rates go up (and they usually do in inflation), real estate values will go down... ask any real estate agent about it.

I personally believe that if they don't want to raise the debt ceiling... they should

(a) start bringing the troops home this week and they should bring them home as fast as they can be transported. That is our biggest expense right now.

(c) put capital gains tax at 50% for investments held less than 2 years and inhertance tax at 50% on everything over 1 million.

--- oh, but the jobs, the jobs.... well, when people have NO disposable income and can't afford fuel to go to work, they're not going to be buying a whole lot of anything... if interest rates go up, they're not going to be financing anything... they'll all be defaulting on current debts... so a default will be a big job killer in and of itself... and the Republicans know that.

It sounds like he left the protection device (the "hot box") turned off. So it sounds like the officer is at fault. If nothing else, I would expect the community to reject the officer (if he even gets to keep his job).

If I lived in that community, I'd be at the meeting... especially wanting to know why they leave a car idle for 4 hours. He could have radioed in at any time and told someone to go get the dog and turn the car off...

At $4/gal... that made no sense at all The dog should have been taken somewhere appropriate to wait and the car turned off. (Not to mention the wear on the motor in the heat).

What if that "hot box" had been turned on, and had opened the windows and a kid climed in for a joy ride? If it had worked, where was the dog supposed to go once he was out of the car? Is he supposed to stand on the street waiting without water? If someone approached the car, is he supposed to defend it with a human backup? That puts the dog at risk of being accused of attacking someone without cause.

Why do they think the AC worked for the first two hours? It could have gone out after the first 15 minutes?

It is such a shame this happened to this poor dog. Hopefully it will bring about more sense in how the K9 units operate.

@Briscoe -- read your links and they are a big "so what"? The only thing interesting is who is named on the defense team... Your boy Cafaro is in deep and it appears he knows it... as to the title, they can file what ever they please, it don't mean a d*** thing.

My question to Briscoe is this... Is Briscoe on the defense team propper (like office goffer who's still working on his grammar), a paid blogger or just a loser?

Briscoe, didn't you mean to say "self proclaimed authority" instead of "self imposed athority"? -- or do you seriously believe the people of the valley look to you to "reveal corruption"?

Seriously??? Does the whiners want to go down and stand on the receiving end of the contamination? If they're so unhappy, I say just give the money back and be done with it. I can't believe they're even trying to whine about being forced to NOT contaminating the entire neighborhood around these demo sites. What's the matter, is someone's relative not certified to get the work when it has to be done right?

As for the goat farming, that might work except that YTown lots are also contaminated with lead among other heavy metals... the goats (if they survived well) would likely produce contaminated milk... but then I guess that would be the fault of the EPA too... not the mills or drivers of vehicles that used leaded gasoline, right?

The lesson here -- If you let big-businesses treat your town like a toilette, then don't complain when people point out that it is a cesspool.

So, who owns the property? It probably was not insured, because insurance carries a 'clean up' amount (mine is 25% of the value of the house). So an insured house (where no foul play is suspected) should have been cleaned up by now. (Granted, insurance companies can come out and claim the moon was in a dangerous phase and use that as a basis to refuse to pay on the claim.)

A demo can be sort of cheap (as in, get the structure flat can be 1 day w/backhoe)... it's the clean up that will cost a lot.

Wonder if neighbors and the community have offered to help before this? Have the owners just disappeared?

My neighbor had a fire in an old 2 story house. Within 2 weeks the site was cleared and a double wide pulled in and set up... we all marveled at how quick they were able to "recover" from their "accidental" fire... but I can tell you for certain that an insured house can be replaced very quick.

Actually, if wolf populations were higher, coyote populations would be lower. Wolves don't tolerate coyote or feral domestic dogs in their territory. The coyote is what moves in when the Wolves are exterminated from an area.

The problem? Wolves are more likely to avoid human contact, vs coyote who (like racoons) are more likely to adapt to humans and more likely to breed with feral domestic dogs. The coyote/feral mix breed is more agressive toward and less fearful of humans, making them the worst of all.

Wow, $300/fake? Seriously? At most that's $50 in hardware, is it taking them 10 hours to install it or something?

And only "up to" 10 cameras? At $55,000 that better include 10 working (motion sensitive, day/night) cameras, the 3 dummies AND the power and comms drops on all 13 sites so you can swap cameras around. If that's the case, then you're only slightly high, but in a reasonable range. If it's anything less, then you need to do a bid process and advertise the RFP.